


The Sun is Eclipsed by the Moon

by cuyahogafalls_ohio



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Girl-Who-Lived (Harry Potter), Wrong Boy-Who-Lived (Harry Potter), also this is chapter one so it is not a spoiler to say that pandora dies, she dies in canon too so
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-23
Updated: 2020-11-20
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:33:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25474672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cuyahogafalls_ohio/pseuds/cuyahogafalls_ohio
Summary: wow that title was 100% pulled out of my ass. I am being undisciplined and distracting myself from my main fic but now I know why they're called plot bunnies. Instead of Harry or Neville being the Boy Who Lived, the Prophecy is (almost) entirely different. Dumbledore didn't figure it out, but neither did Voldemort, so Wizarding Britain is just unknowingly waiting for some saviour to vanquish the Dark Lord whose parents thrice defied him and was born on the eve of Saint Valentine's Day.
Relationships: Pandora Lovegood/Xenophilius Lovegood
Kudos: 6





	1. Aberforth's news

“Well, it wasn’t made to me, so I can’t remember it  _ exactly _ , but it was something like ‘the one with the power to defeat the Dark Lord will be born before St Valentine’s Day’-- isn’t that kind of funny?-- ‘they will be born to those who have thrice defied him, and he will take them under his wing’ or something like that. Anyway, this was last year, but weren’t you just saying that Pandora is expecting around mid-February?” 

“Yes, we were,” Xenophilius told Aberforth. 

“And haven’t you published three articles  _ defying  _ the so-called Dark Lord?” 

“Yes, I have,” Xenophilius said. 

“Yeah, I thought so. Well, he definitely had some Death Eater here getting a job interview-- I don’t know  _ what  _ is wrong with my brother or why he hasn’t had to prove his sanity yet, giving a  _ Death Eater  _ a  _ job interview _ . Anyway, I’m pretty sure You-Know-Who knows about this so I wanted to let you know. He probably won’t suspect your kid since it’s more than a whole year later, but since when have Prophecies been clear and straight-forward? I might not remember it perfectly, but I know it did  _ not _ say ‘shall be born this year’. For all we know it’s some kid who won’t be born until 1990. I hope not, for all of our sakes’, can you imagine? Another few  _ decades _ of this? But I wanted to let you know that I thought it  _ could  _ be your kid.” 

Xenophilius appreciated it. 

It was easy to hide baby Luna for ten days and say she was born February 23rd rather than the day before St. Valentine’s Day. He spoke about it with Pandora, as well as continuing to talk about it with Aberforth. They concluded that they were relatively safe for a number of reasons. Mostly, writing articles probably wasn’t the type of defiance the Dark Lord expected. Furthermore, if the fact there was only  _ one  _ female Death Eater was anything to go by, You-Know-Who probably didn’t expect it to be a girl regardless of how well a baby girl might have matched the clues. All of this and Aberforth’s comment about how the Prophecy had been given over a year ago helped make Xenophilius and Pandora Lovegood feel rather safe, although they still kept a close eye on their child and stayed out of the War. Well, they stayed out of it as much as they could while still printing articles giving Wizarding Britain the truth when the Daily Prophet started only telling the people what the infiltrated Ministry wanted them to hear. 

And so no one defeated the Dark Lord that Halloween night, and Voldemort slowly drove the Order of the Phoenix deeper and deeper underground as he infiltrated more and more of the Ministry of Magic. 

He did eventually notice Xenophilius defying him, since Xeno refused to stop writing and publishing articles no matter how unflattering they may be to the Ministry and, by association, Voldemort. He received several hints, which eventually turned into blatant threats, insisting that he cease his anti-Voldemort publications. He did not, though; nothing would make him stop writing and spreading the truth. 

Or so he thought, but then they killed his wife while his darling baby girl Luna was upstairs. After that, he stuck to less conventional topics and, when he did criticize the Ministry, he shrouded it in metaphor. 

* * *

Luna was nine years old when suddenly her home was under attack by the so-called Aurors who were really just Death Eaters. Her mother was in the kitchen, experimenting with charms as usual, and Luna was in her room painting. It was a day like any other, although Xenophilius was out on a literal field trip, having taken a portkey with some friends to search for rare creatures in a far-off Scottish meadow. There was suddenly banging and crashing coming from the kitchen downstairs. Luna froze, listening but not moving. She heard the sounds of her mother struggling-- it sounded like both her mother and the Aurors were letting off stunning spells, shield charms, and other combat spells. 

She heard a voice that was  _ definitely  _ not her mother’s say “ _ Avada Kedavra! _ ” There was a faint thud and Luna knew she had to leave and get far, far away. 

She set herself to the task of making her blankets into a rope so she could escape out the window. She peered out of it first, to be sure that the coast was clear. The window towards the front of the house revealed two Death Aurors standing near the main pathway keeping guard, but the rear of their house was unprotected. She actually heard “Where’s the child? The Dark Lord said there was a child?” before she hopped out the window and climbed down. She took one short moment to frown at the blanket and worry about how obvious it was that she had climbed out the window with it hanging there, but there was nothing to be done about it now. She had to secure it pretty tightly to ensure she wouldn’t end up just toppling from the second story window. She made herself stop worrying about it and took off running. She didn’t risk looking back as she headed in the direction of the Weasleys’ Burrow, thankful for the cover of trees provided by the orchard between their homes. 

Luna had always been pretty good with directions, and before she ran out of energy, she had the Burrow in sight. She slowed to a walk, catching her breath as she approached the house. 

“Luna?” Mrs. Weasley asked as Luna invited herself in through the back door, showing up right in the kitchen. “What’s going on?” 

It was then that what had actually happened caught up with her. She ran to Mrs. Weasley’s arms, the first tears starting to run down her face. “M-m-my mom… I heard… the Killing Curse… I think…” 

Luna Lovegood was only nine years old, but it was the most painful thing she experienced in her considerably long and interesting life. 


	2. hogwarts express

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> i had Plans and a System then instead I got a New Job and that just put a wrench in writing since it put a wrench in my System, in my Plan, so here chapter 2 is, unedited because editing means obsessively changing one or more things every time i edit and never actually uploading

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> luna rides the hogwarts express for the first time!

Luna Lovegood kissed her father goodbye, grabbed her trunk, and stepped foot onto the Hogwarts Express. 

She lugged her trunk down the aisles of the railcars, looking for an empty compartment, or maybe Ginny Weasley, if she found Ginny before she found an empty compartment. The reason for this was because she knew she was weird. She knew other people didn’t like to talk about Wracklespurts and Crumpled-Horned Snorkacks and the rotfang conspiracy. Ginny was nice and would listen and ask polite questions, but everyone else Luna had met, including Ginny’s brothers, had been rather rude to her about her beliefs. So, Ginny or nobody, since anyone else would probably tease her about something or another. She simply did not feel up to being teased today. Honestly, she was feeling rather sad due to the fact her mother couldn’t have been here to see her off. It made it hit home pretty hard that her mother was still and would continue to be dead. She was  _ mostly  _ used to it, but special days like today were still difficult. 

Since she and her father had arrived rather early, she did find an empty compartment. She made herself comfortable and began reading this month’s edition of the Quibbler. That distracted her nicely until Ginny showed up. “You’re almost late,” Luna said without looking up. She was almost finished with an article about a secret group of vampyres who controlled the Ministry. 

“I know. It’s always such a circus trying to get all of us ready, especially since it’s my first year and for the first time  _ five  _ of us are  _ all _ going to Hogwarts. I had to, like, quadruple-check that I wasn’t forgetting anything,” Ginny said, excitedly. She sat down across from Luna and began to explain how insane leaving the house was with five Hogwarts students all needing to be prepared for an entire school year. 

Not five minutes later, Ginny’s youngest older brother and three friends appeared. 

“May we sit here?” asked a bushy-headed witch. “We’re having trouble finding a compartment. We’d really like to sit together but we haven’t found anywhere to sit that has enough space for all four of us.” 

“Of course we can sit here, what’s Ginny going to do, not let her older brother sit with her?” Ginny’s brother asked rhetorically, or maybe not rhetorically. Luna frequently had trouble telling the difference between rhetorical questions and genuine ones. 

“Maybe I won’t now that you’ve said that,” Ginny said. 

“ _ That’s _ why I asked nicely,  _ Ron _ ,” said the witch. She turned to Ginny and Luna. “Please? We won’t be a bother, but we’d really rather sit with you than some Slytherins or seventh years or seventh year Slytherins.” 

“Yeah, sorry for the assumption, I just figured you’d rather let us sit here than end up with some seventh years, too,” Ron said. 

“Okay, you’ve got a point,” Ginny conceded. 

“I certainly don’t mind,” Luna said. 

The four slightly older students came into the compartment and made themselves comfortable. The ones that weren’t Ginny’s youngest older brother introduced themselves. Luna, of course, already knew Ronald, but the others were new to her. They turned out to be Neville Longbottom, Hermione Greengrass, and Harry Potter. 

They started chatting about Hogwarts. Since Luna didn’t have six older brothers like Ginny did, she wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. Her father had told her a bit, but he had attended nearly forty years ago and much had changed. Part of her was worried it would be entirely different from the wonderful stories her parents had told her. Voldemort took a  _ very  _ well-known interest in Hogwarts. In fact, Ronald and his friends highly recommended keeping a low profile so as to not attract any attention from Voldemort. No attention was better than even positive attention, according to the four of them. 

Additionally, the second years told Luna and Ginny something about a First Year Challenge, which determined class rankings which would stick with them for the entirety of their second year. Their ranking could be redetermined at the end of their second year, but  _ that  _ ranking would influence their standing for the entirety of their third year, and so on every year until they graduated. Luna didn’t particularly care about being number one or competition at all, really, so she didn’t worry too much about that part of the conversation. 

Besides the first year challenge and Voldemort being a frequent visitor, Luna was comforted by the second-years. It didn’t sound like too much was different from the stories Luna’s mother and father had told her. 

“Well, it’s always fun to ask first years this-- which house do you think you’ll be sorted into?” Hermione asked. Luna already liked her; she was very nice. 

“Ravenclaw. It’s a family thing,” Luna said. 

“Ha!” Ginny added. “Same with me and Gryffindor.” 

Hermione frowned at them. “Well that doesn’t seem very fun, already knowing where you’re going to go.” 

“I thought I’d go into Hufflepuff-- I was sure of it! But then I got Gryffindor!” Neville shared. Luna also found herself drawn to him. Quite simply, she liked nice people and this group of people seemed very kind. Even Ronald didn’t seem particularly mean-spirited when he had teased her in the past, and he hadn’t teased her at all this time, so far. 

“Same for me as it was for Ginny,” Ron said. “I think one of our grandparents might have been a Hufflepuff, maybe. But both our parents and so far all of our older brothers have been Gryffindors. Bunch of our uncles, too.” 

“The Potters also always go to Gryffindor,” Harry said. 

“Jeez,” Hermione said. “How droll for all of you! I had no idea which house I would end up in! I mean, I had a pretty good  _ hunch  _ that it would be Gryffindor or Ravenclaw but I didn’t know  _ for sure _ !” 

Luna shrugged. “The only thing I’m worried about now is the fact that I won’t know anyone in Ravenclaw. You’re all so nice and you’re all, apparently, Gryffindor.” 

The four older kids exchanged a quick round of glances. This did not make Luna feel better about what she assumed was her impending loneliness. 

“You can be friends with people in other houses…” Hermione said, sounding less certain than she had the whole train ride. 

“Yeah, I just won’t live, eat, or have classes with them,” Luna said matter-of-factly. “Maybe the fact we are getting along means I’m being silly when I’m worried about not making friends, though.” 

Ginny gave her a light, playful shove on the shoulder. “Of course you are! Who wouldn’t want to be friends with you?” 

“Lots of people? Nearly everyone except for you teases me about creatures I believe in and my dad’s magazine,” Luna said in her straightforward way. It wasn’t necessarily a bad thing but it certainly was a  _ thing  _ and pretending that it wasn’t a thing wasn’t going to do anyone any good. 

The Gryffindors did look troubled, but her dad had always told her that Gryffindors in particular had an inflated sense of right and wrong and had a hard time accepting the things they couldn’t change. Luna did not-- if there was one Ravenclaw trait her parents had trained her to embody, it was acceptance. She hadn’t had much of a choice, really. Sometimes people were mean, and she could and should try to change them and befriend them, but she should  _ not _ let it upset her if befriending them didn’t work. Sometimes people died! She could let that upset her but she also had to accept that she couldn’t do anything to bring them back. On the other hand, her father  _ had _ made sure that she knew she should accept that she did have the power to change  _ some _ things, and acceptance wasn’t the same as defeat; however, he had also told her time and again that Gryffindors weren’t known for being great with nuance. 

“Well, we’ll keep an eye on you,” said Harry. Luna beamed as Ron, Hermione, and Neville all nodded in agreement. She hadn’t expected to make friends before even stepping foot in the castle. She hadn’t  _ really  _ expected to make friends at all, not admitting to herself until now that she was terrified to get her hopes up. 

“Wow,” she said outloud. “That’ll be a lot like having friends!” 

“Er, Luna, it  _ will  _ be having friends. We’re going to keep an eye on you because you’re our friend now,” Harry said. 

“Also, I’ve been your friend the whole time, Luna,” Ginny said, actually sounding quite offended. 

“Oh, I know!” Luna said. “I have always known I have one friend, Ginny, and I appreciate it. I just didn’t really think I’d ever get  _ more  _ friends since people always tease me.” 

Ronald turned red and Luna realized he knew that he was included in that statement. “Sometimes people tease their friends and don’t actually mean anything by it,” he muttered. 

“I get it,” Luna said. “But I do not like being teased even if it is in a friendly way.” 

“I’ll er, keep that in mind,” Ronald said, and Hermione suddenly caught up to the subtext and rounded on him. 

“ _ You _ have teased Luna before?  _ You  _ are part of the reason she’s worried about making friends?” Hermione said in a way that oddly enough reminded Luna of Mrs. Weasley when the twins were, yet again, in trouble. 

“Well, I mean, the twins always started it, and even Percy--” 

“I don’t care! Apologize!” 

“Er, what--?” Ron was clearly taken off guard by Hermione’s demand.

“Apologize to Luna for teasing her and contributing to her belief that anyone besides Ginny was bound to tease her, too!” 

Ronald’s ears were so red Luna thought that she could use plain red paint without having to mix it with any white or other colours that made skin tones if she were to paint a portrait of him. Maybe she would-- this was kind of funny even though she could tell by Harry, Neville, and Ginny that it was also uncomfortable. 

After a moment, Ronald heaved a sigh. “Okay. I’m sorry Luna. It  _ was  _ messed up of me to tease you and doing it just ‘cause my brothers were is a terrible excuse--” 

“I’ll say,” Ginny interrupted, though she looked more amused than anything. 

Ronald took one moment to glare at her. “You’re obviously pretty cool and being a little weird is, as I am 100 per cent positive your father has already told you, a good thing.” 

“If you have any trouble making friends in Ravenclaw, if anyone is mean to you or teases you and you don’t like it, come find us. Seriously.” That was Neville, and Luna was a bit surprised. He had seemed more the type to silently show support rather than blatantly offering it. 

“Well, thank you all,” Luna said. 

They spent the rest of the train ride in easy conversation, further deepening their burgeoning friendship. 

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this first chapter in like 2016 and then deleted the document it was in like an idiot. I am not satisfied with this iteration of it, but it is mostly to set up the scene for Luna to be the Chosen One and start attending Hogwarts.


End file.
